BY BEN VERDE
City streets will be packed
with harmonious musicals
and tap dancing theater
troupes this summer, when
the city’s “Open Culture” program
frees Brooklyn’s battered
artisans to lay claim to
street space for open-air performances
of all types.
As the “Open Streets”
and “Open Restaurants” programs
before it, the new initiative
aims to allow coopedup
Kings Countians cautious
of crowding indoors for fear of
contracting COVID to sprawl
out with ample space to social
distance — this time,
while enjoying a show from a
cadre of local cultural craftsmen,
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on Monday.
“The idea is to make this
simple, to make it accessible,
to bring cultural institutions
of all kinds, of all communities,
out into the streets to engage
people, give them energy,
give them hope,” Hizzoner
said on Feb. 8 in Dumbo. “For
that to work, we have to clear
the way, we have to cut the red
tape and make it simple.”
The city’s Street Activity
Permit Offi ce will now have
the authority to more easily
dole out licenses for live
performances, rehearsals,
classes, and workshops. Venues
will be able to host ticketed
events in over 100 locations
in order to bring in some
revenue after over a year of
closure.
“This is a job creator, this
is a motivator,” said Queens
Councilmember Jimmy Van
Bramer, chair of the Council’s
Cultural Affairs Committee.
COURIER LIFE, F 22 EBRUARY 12-18, 2021
The permits will be made
available to any recipients of
funding from the Cultural
Development Fund, the borough
arts council, or members
of the Cultural Institutions
Group. The reimagined
permitting process is based
largely on the city’s “Open
Restaurants” program, which
turned a once-lengthy application
HISTORIC HOMES: The Hunterfl y Road houses, now part of the Weeksville
Heritage Center, were the fi rst buildings owned by free African-
Americans in the 1830s. Ed Lefkowicz
into a much simpler
and faster process.
“We saw with ‘Open Restaurants,’
we cut the red tape,
we made it simple,” de Blasio
said. “If you build it, they will
come.”
New York’s cultural sector
is among the hardest hit by
the ongoing coronavirus pandemic
— as venues were the
fi rst to close when COVID-19
fi rst ravaged the city last
spring, and they will likely be
among the last to reopen once
herd immunity is reached.
Until then, local arts leaders
are lauding the city’s pivot
into outdoor arts permitting.
“Brooklyn’s dynamic artistic
community has been
eagerly awaiting opportunities
to participate in the revitalization
of our creative community
by presenting their
work to the public in ways
that are safe and engaging,”
said Charlotte Cohen, executive
director of the Brooklyn
Arts Council. “We are so delighted
to see the City innovating
the Open Culture Program
as part of a collective
effort to bring creativity back
to our streets and our lives —
we need the arts to refl ect our
shared humanity now more
than ever, after a period of so
much suffering and loss.”
Applications for Open Culture
permits open March 1
at www1.nyc.gov/site/cecm/
about/sapo.page
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Explore New York City’s
Black history through its
landmarked buildings and
historic districts via a new
online story map released by
the Landmarks Preservation
Commission Tuesday.
The interactive site,
dubbed “Preserving Signifi -
cant Places of Black History,”
was launched by the panel
in honor of Black History
Month and aims to highlight
buildings and neighborhoods
where African Americans of
note lived and fought for racial
justice across the Five Boroughs,
according to the Commission’s
chief.
“With this story map, our
goal is to provide greater accessibility
to New York City
landmarks and historic districts
that refl ect the contributions
and achievements of African
Americans, and illustrate
that the fi ght for racial equity
and social justice is as relevant
today as it has been over the
course of the City’s history,”
said LPC chairperson Sarah
Carroll in a Feb. 9 release.
History buffs can scour
through the 75 individuallylandmarked
buildings and 33
historic districts in the map,
with prominent residents and
movements organized by historical
era from the early colonial
period through to the late
20th century.
Many of the Brooklyn
sites are in and around predominantly
Black neighborhoods
like Fort Greene, Bedford
Stuyvesant, and Crown
Heights.
The historical spots include
the Crown Heights
home of Shirley Chisholm,
the fi rst Black woman elected
to the United States Congress
in 1968, who lived at 1028 St
John’s Place, between Brooklyn
and Kingston avenues.
Further east lie the Hunterfl
y Road houses which were
part of Weeksville, a community
of free Black landowners
established in the 1830s on
the border of today’s Crown
Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant,
and on St Felix Street in
Fort Greene is the brownstone
where jazz vocalist Betty
Carter lived from 1971 until
her death in 1998.
There are also some locations
in Downtown Brooklyn
and Brooklyn Heights, areas
that were hubs for slavery-abolitionist
activity in the 19th
century, such as the home of
Harriet and Thomas Truesdell
at 227 Duffi eld St., which
LPC designated just last week
on Feb. 2.
The map is not a complete
list of signifi cant places of the
city’s African-American history,
but an educational tool
and a living document which
can be updated with more information
about designated
buildings, along with future
landmarks and historic districts,
LPC’s release notes.
First Lady Chirlane Mc-
Cray said she hopes the document
will help New Yorkers
learn about the Big Apple’s
rich Black history and encourage
youngsters to fi nd out
more.
“This is the kind of information
that should be part of
every school curriculum and
every New Yorker’s education,”
McCray said. “I hope
that learning about these sites
prompts young people to ask
their elders more questions
and hope they are encouraged
to explore the rich history of
their own families and neighborhoods.”
Find the map at www1.nyc.
gov/site/lpc/index.page
What happened here
New map tells Black history through landmarks
Sounds of the city
Program to bring performances to streets
BROOKLYN
Streets will play host to open-air performances under a new city initiative.
File photo by Lloyd Mitchell
America’s fi rst Black Congresswoman
Shirley Chisholm.
Associated Press / James Palmer
/